The windows were still mostly blocked, but a few of the kids were trying to peek out and see what was going on. The teacher that was in here with them was doing his best to keep everyone in order.
The one that led Ashton here quickly spoke to that other teacher, and then excused herself, heading back downstairs to help out at the gymnasium. Though, mostly, it seemed like she was just uncomfortable in here. And maybe it made sense, since all of these kids were acting completely differently to the ones in the gym. While there, the kids were solemn and quiet and scared, the ones in here were... cheerful. Excited, even.
Ashton understood why that might be off-putting to others. In a seemingly hopeless situation like this, the more scared you were, the more confusing it was when others didn't feel the same.
Some of the kids looked over at Ashton, staring at him suspiciously. In particular, there was a group in the corner of the room, sitting on some of the tables.
"Who are you supposed to be?" one of them asked, just staring at Ashton, "Are you hiding out here because you're scared of the monsters like all the other adults?"
Ashton raised a brow, approaching that small group with his arms crossed, "The adults don't really seem scared to me. They did all go out and help hunt some of them, you know?"
"But that was just because they had to! They were crying the whole time, those wusses," the kid, who seemed to be the leader of this bunch, laughed out. The other kids directly around her laughed as well.
"Hm, to me they seemed pretty brave."
"Then you must be a wuss as well!" she replied, staring at the blocked-off window, "If they let us go out there, all the monsters would be gone immediately!"
Ashton smiled, nodding, "I'm sure they would be. But, well, you guys aren't exactly allowed to go outside right now. That's fine, though, since I'm here to take care of them."
The kids looked around at each other, and then back at Ashton. He could feel the judgement of the grade schoolers tear into his body more than any goblin ever could. But he came here more than prepared for that. He knew what he got into.
"You? You think you're going to kill all those monsters alone?" the girl asked, and one of the kids next to her looked him up and down before just staring at his face in disgust.
"But you look so... wimpy."
Ashton shrugged, "Well, not wrong, I do look pretty wimpy. But - I promise I'm not."
The kids clearly weren't convinced, but by now, their teacher came up to Ashton, "I'm so sorry about them, they just-" he looked away from Ashton and practically glared at the kids, "-they just don't understand the situation we're all in!"
The children laughed a bit, but Ashton just shook his head, "It's alright, don't worry. I think they understand it pretty well, actually."
Though the teacher was confused at that, the kids actually seemed even more shocked that someone was taking them seriously, "Of course we do!" that girl said, and Ashton looked back at her and smiled.
"Right. What's your name? I'm Ashton."
Still hesitant, the girl frowned a bit as she replied, "I'm Millie."
"Pleasure to meet you. So, I'm here to ask you something."
The kid next to Millie glared at Ashton, "What do you want to ask her? Are you a non-"
"Nope," Ashton immediately shut the kid down before he could finish that word, "I just know that, even if all these teachers think they're in charge, in reality, you know much, much more about what's going on. And I need some info."
Millie looked at the others next to her, "Hm, he's got a point there." She stood up and walked up to Ashton, crossing her arms. "But I'm still not sure if you really have what it takes."
Ashton sighed for a moment. He unhooked the lantern from his belt and held it forward. Sparks flew through the air for a moment as the coal briquette inside of it was lit on fire. The salamander was formed from the flames. Immediately after, Ashton channelled the elemental's magic and started making some fire jump around the air.
And the kids just stared at him and the fire, and their eyes practically began to glow in the reflection.
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"Whoa! What! Is that- Magic?! You can use magic?! You're a wizard?!" Millie yelled out immediately, clearly speaking for all the kids. Though, that didn't stop all the other kids from getting excited as well. They huddled around Ashton, who was trying his best to keep the fire away from them.
He held the lantern and salamander up a bit more, then snapped his finger. The backpacker appeared, distracting the kids once more. They ran over to the spirit, talking to them and trying to see under their hood, peeking into their backpack, and even trying to climb into it when they took out Ashton's staff.
"Sorry," he apologised, and the spirit just jumped back into Ashton's vessel as soon as they could. Ashton leaned his staff onto his shoulder as he called the salamander back as well, "As you can see, I've got my means. I'm a summoner, and I've got some pretty powerful friends."
The children stared at Ashton excitedly, and a broad smile appeared on Millie's face. She looked over at one of her friends, "Joey, tell him what we figured out about them!"
"Yes, ma'am!" another girl stepped forward, slamming down a glittery pink notebook onto the table. She opened it up to Ashton, and showed him a bunch of notes and sketches, "Look, here! There's tons of those little guys, and they're really mean-looking and ugly. They run around the playground and are super annoying."
Joey pointed at a slightly crude, but surprisingly accurate, sketch of a goblin. She had written down an estimation of how many were down there, roughly a hundred.
"And then there are the bigger ones. They're also really mean looking, but they're way more dangerous because they're also really strong. I saw one of them throwing the little guys around like toys. Like when Sean throws a tantrum."
The boy, presumably Sean, nodded his head with crossed arms, "Yeah, scary stuff."
Ashton scoffed a bit. Kids cracked him up, "Right, so, do you know how many of them there are? I saw five of them outside earlier."
Without hesitation, Joey shook her head, "There's at least ten! And one of them that's really big and fat and mean. She's way bigger and stronger than the others, and keeps yelling things at the others. We think she's their queen."
"Mhm, mhm, sounds probable. Do you know where they're hiding out?"
"They're in the house on the other side of the street. A really mean old lady lives there, she yells at us all the time. But she's super scary, way scarier than the monsters, so I don't think she's dead yet."
Sean nodded in agreement, "I actually have a theory that she's the real queen of the monsters and is controlling them."
Surprised, Ashton raised a brow, "Oh? Did you see her talk to the monsters?"
"Hm? No, of course not! But my mum called her a witch, so she's got to be in charge, right?"
With a snort as he held back his laugh, Ashton nodded, "Sure, I'll figure out what's going on and then tell you after, okay?"
"Deal."
"Okay, so. The orc — that's what the big ones are called — that's the biggest, does it have some kind of weapon? Is it wearing armour?" Ashton wondered, and Joey quickly flipped through the pages. There was a drawing of an orc there. A specific one, not a generic orc. Though it wasn't wearing armour, it was wearing some kind of leather vest. From the notes that were taken next to the sketch, it was a leather jacket that this orc tore the arms off of to make it fit better.
"She has this really big scar on her face, and we think it's because she killed a dragon!"
Ashton scoffed, shaking his head, "Kill a dragon, seriously?"
Millie stared up at him with a glare, "What, are you a wizard that doesn't believe in dragons?"
"What? No, dragons are just way too strong to be taken out by a single orc. You would need an army of these to put a scratch on even single scale of any dragon worth its hoard."
The teacher slowly walked up to Ashton, tapping him on the shoulder from behind, "Excuse me, but I don't think you should feed into their fantasies too much... it's better for them to be grounded and realise that dragons just aren't real."
Ashton turned around and narrowed his eyes, "Are you... are you serious? Did you not see that I literally used magic just a few minutes ago? Dragons are very, very real. I'd know."
"Wait! Have you seen! A! Dragon?!"
Millie asked with a bright smile on her face, and Ashton couldn't help but feel proud. It was stupid, but having kids get so genuinely excited at something you said was just a great feeling, "A couple. They're really cool," he explained. "I can tell you about it later once things are cleared up. And for that, I need to know a few more details. I'm sure this isn't all you guys figured out, is it?"
The kids looked at each other for a moment, and it was as though Joey was trying to get permission from Millie. With a quick nod of approval, Joey flipped the pages of the notebook even further. As if she was hiding all the good stuff.
There was a big list of different categories, based on what task the monsters had in the group, how they behaved when fighting, what kind of weapons they had, and so on. It was actually incredibly impressive.
On one of the pages, there was even a map of the whole school's property where they had written down where different types of monsters were running around.
"How did you even get all this info?" Ashton was genuinely surprised. The teachers were clearly trying to keep them locked away here so that they couldn't get close enough to the monsters to actually see them.
Millie shrugged, her arms crossed, "Sean's pretty crafty. He knows how to take down all the boards from the windows and put them back on before the teachers notice."
"Wait, what?" the teacher in question asked, confused, and Ashton just laughed.
"Great job, everyone. This is all really helpful. I'll make sure to secure the school for you," Ashton said, and then looked into the air, "But... I think I do deserve a little something in return, Guardian."
As the kids looked at Ashton confused, a message appeared before him
[[Guardian of the Innocent] is startled by your sudden immorality]
[[Guardian of the Innocent] asks how you could dangle the life of children before them]
"Hey, hey, don't get me wrong, I'm going to do it either way. But, well, the more you help me, the more I can actually help these kids once I'm done clearing out those monsters. What do you say?" Ashton crossed his arms, and for a few moments, the Guardian didn't reply. And then, it came.
Ashton had hoped for just a few coins, maybe a shop voucher or something so that he could buy more things for himself at the vending machine. But what he did get what far more than he could have expected.
[You have a New Quest! [Bonus Quest - Save Drakewood Primary School]]
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